Is an upgrade an oxymoron?

Sometime this week, the design of my blog will undergo some changes — it’s an “automatic upgrade” of my “theme”  from Press Row (the template I chose a year ago) to a similar, intended-to-be-better one called Pilcrow.  I really like WordPress — for crying out loud, it’s a free service that allows me to concentrate on writing rather than manipulating stuff on my blog (!) — but I’m not exactly *sure* what  the unintended consequences will be. Isn’t that the case for any kind of change, though? Sometimes improvements just complicate things…. I can think of so many examples my head spins. Not enough time or energy to deal with it today, or maybe even this whole week. I’m glad it’s just my blog undergoing a revision right now! And I apologize for any inconvenience until I have it figured out.

Opting for the landscape rather than a portrait

When we were first married, Peter and I often sent out photo greeting cards for Christmas. Always something corny, goofing around. However, now that we’re near our 30^th wedding anniversary – and some days the years show more than we’d like (!) – we prefer the beautiful view from our front porch more than a shot of the two of us.

This year I’m using Shutterfly, an on-line service that truly understands personalization.

I love this classic photo of the sunrise over the Tetons to the east of our home! I’m going to combine it with a multi-lingual wish for peace, and voila, we have a special card we can use all year.

Shutterfly makes it easy, with customized text and inside layout, and they use cardstock from sustainable forests. It only takes a few minutes.

See the design I’ve chosen (Spread Peace, by Yours Truly) and 288 other affordable and fun cards here.

Eleven weeks!!

For any of you who wondered I’d stopped reading, well — NO. But I haven’t written about what I’ve been reading…. Since I’m not sure that anyone really cares, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. But, like most things, since I care about it, I want to bring myself up to date. 

And because I stack up the books I’ve read until I wrote my blog notes on them, there are WAY too many right now. And they all need to be shelved. One of the things that Peter and I have been doing is organizing our library — most non-fiction and reference is downstairs, with fiction, antique books, travel (including everything on England, Ireland, Italy and France) and poetry upstairs. Plus we’re culling out a few things to share….

Without further ado, here’s my list since Sept. 1 — without many notes, but complete!  
* Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (for Book Club in October, which I had to miss);
* The Butterflies of Grand Canyon by Margaret Erhart (good for traveling with Peter’s mom);
* The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (always wanted to read this one, I found it in Florida at Peter’s cousin’s house and finished it while we were there);
* The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson (recommended by Peter — we both think it would be a terrific book to discuss with others sometime);
* The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (another amazing recommend from my friend Cort Conley at the Idaho Commission on the Arts);
* Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (really slogged my way through this one, even though it was the winner of the Mann Booker Prize);
* New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485-1603 by Susan Brigden (used pieces of this one to help me accomplish the slog);
* The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan (I’ve always had a *thing* about Niagara Falls….);
* The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (witches have held my fascination, too, especially those in Salem);
* A Shelter of Hope by Tracie Peterson (read through one night while battling insomnia–it’s a Christian romance about a Harvey House girl in Wyoming–not even sure why I had it or where it came from!);
* What If 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, edited by Robert Cowley (gives one cause to pause and reflect);
* Helen of Troy by Margaret George (we’re going to Sparta in less than two months — I simply HAD to read this one!);
* and now I’m reading The Salisbury Manuscript by Philip Gooden (a mystery set near one of my favorite spots, as I did PR for Up With People in nearby Bournemouth, England);
AND, because we’re planning our trip — a good selection of guide boooks and travel-inspired anthologies, too many to list but you get the idea from the stack!

Woohoo! Now I am, for the moment, caught up. I very much wanted to do this post before I write about Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. AND since I have lots of *other* work to do, I best get to it.

Happy reading, my friends!

Yummy granola

I admit it. I like granola! Especially with raisins addedin and  topped with yogurt and a banana.   Although I have several good recipes for granola, this is one of the easiest.  Might be one of the healthiest, too…..

COMBINE:
5 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup chopped or sliced almonds (or walnuts)
1 cup unrefined sesame seeds
1 cup soy flour
1 cup powdered milk (*not* instant)
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup sunflower seeds, if you’re feeling really nutty

MIX:
1 cup honey
1 cup vegetable oil

Top the dry stuff with the wet stuff, and stir well. Then bake in a 200-degree oven for 20 minutes (stir it every so often while it’s baking) or until it’s crunchy enough for you.

Enjoy!